Wedding photography at San Francisco city hall offers all kinds of options for beautiful light. If you photograph the bride on the South side of the building you will benefit from the sun streaming in through the building which provides great rim lighting for your subjects. The only issue is that it can occasionally be harsh light depending upon the time of day. Alternatively, we can go to the North side and get some very complimentary soft light that exists there. We love putting our brides right by the window and using the northern soft light as our main light source. At times, we need to use some fill light with an umbrella or bounced off-camera flash unit.
The photo above was taken with a telephoto lens from clear across the city hall building and displays the wedding dress beautifully. We take great pride in setting up our clients in a very complimentary fashion. We want to display the dress, showing the texture and shape. Having the bride holding her own train as pictured here does that quite nicely. Often times the light from behind the window will create a slight glow in the train which will accentuate it even more.
There are only a few times throughout the day that this type of image is possible due to lighting angles and availability of the space. In addition, certain time periods throughout the year yield dramatic lighting options. In the winter, when the light is low, you can obtain amazing light patterns on the city hall walls. This is because of the ornate design of most of the windows throughout the building. These detailed windows act as projectors on the walls and create beautiful designs that we can incorporate our photography. When the light is higher during the summer, these types of patterns can still be possible as it becomes later in the day as the sun lowers. However the winter months provide the most drama when it comes to light reflecting inside San Francisco city hall.
Why do we call it a Light Tour? Because in a sense, we are following the light as we go from place to place in the San Francisco city hall building. We find ourselves taking our brides and groom from window to window and door to door. Always searching out the best backgrounds, but most importantly, the best light. The fact is, it changes throughout the day and even throughout the hour. As experienced professional city hall wedding photographers, we have years of experience doing this. To call your attention again to the photo above, note how the back light frames her dress. The shape of the dress is accentuated by the rim light that basically outlines the silhouette. As mentioned above, these opportunities are fleeting and so it is necessary to take advantage of them for the short time they exist. 1 hour later this particular light may be gone, but it is OK because we just go to another side of the building and create more magical moments for the bride and groom on their wedding day at City Hall. There is always some beautiful place to go in the building to find great light and backgrounds. We supplement all of this natural light with our professional off-camera lighting set up to further enhance the drama of the images in SF City Hall.
